When you leave your home for a weekend and ask someone to house-sit while you’re away, you would expect them to take proper care of what’s rightfully yours until your return. Just like the house-sitter’s given responsibility, God has given each of us the job of stewardship: managing and taking care of His creation. Transform your outlook as you learn how God is the rightful owner of everything, and you only manage what He first puts into your hands.

what do you have that you have not

received God claims comprehensive

kingdom ownership of all of creation so

if God owns everything you and I owe

nothing there are no other owners God

has given you the freedom to mess up

what he created in fact he’s giving you

and me so much free that we can hand it

over to the devil if we won’t if you

grab that that you will nothing

including your own life because it can

be taken you have now set yourself on a

journey of understanding life it’s yours

to manage not yours to own so in the

words of football how bad do you want

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God has a house

it’s called his kingdom that’s his house

and he not only owns the house he owns

everything in the house Psalm 24 verse 1

says the earth is the Lord’s and the

fullness thereof the world and all of

them who dwell in it God claims

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comprehensive Kingdom ownership of all

of creation he repeats this over and

over and over again in Psalm 89 verse 11

God says I own all that the world

contains in first Corinthians 10 26 God

says I owned it all in revelation 4:11

God says I own it all so if God owns

everything you and I owe nothing

God claims complete ownership of all of

his creation so there are no other

owners there are no other owners if you

grab that that you own nothing including

your own life because it can be taken

you have now set yourself on a journey

of understanding life because most

people think they own what they don’t

own just because they have it there in

the vicinity of it what God has

established is a management company

owners of property have management

companies that manage the well-being of

their property for them God has a

management company it’s called mankind

God created mankind to manage what he

owns because he owns it all before God

created man he had another management

company angels before there was mankind

there were angels and angels managed

God’s creation on his behalf until one

of the Angels went rogue Isaiah chapter

14 verses 12 to 14 explains how Lucifer

The Shining one rebelled against God and

tried to establish his own ownership on

God’s premises and tried to create a

joint venture with other angels a third

of all the angels to join him

in owning what he did not create and

that led to a cosmic Kingdom rebellion

Jesus says in Luke chapter 10 verse 18 I

was there when Satan fell from heaven

like lightning Jesus says I was there he

existed before he was born when Satan

fell that is when Lucifer got a name

change to Satan he became the adversary

of God he was kicked out of heaven to

the third planet from the Sun earth

that’s why when you open your Bibles it

says and earth was without form and void

and darkness was upon the face of the

deep

how could there be darkness when God is

light it says darkness was upon the face

of the deep so God had to create light

it says God had to separate the land

from the water whenever land and water a

mix that’s called a swamp

why was the earth in disarray because

Satan had been kicked out of heaven to

earth so this had become the abode of

the devil and his evil ones but God

decided as owner to renovate the

property so in Genesis 1 God renovates

the property he calls in light the Sun

the Moon the Stars separates the water

from the land creating continents and

brings order to a chaotic environment

but now establishes a new management

crew a new group of stewards if you will

Psalm chapter 8 verses 3 to 6 says and

you have made man a little lower than

the Angels that is constitutionally

inferior we can’t disappear we can’t fly

around

we don’t have angelic intellect we are

lower constitutionally than the Angels

but you have crowned him with majesty

you’ve hired a new crew to look after

your works

that’s stewardship so let me define let

me give you a specific definition of

Kingdom stewardship this management crew

mankind male and female has been duly

tasked with protecting and expanding the

assets of the owner stewardship is

protecting and expanding the assets of

another you protect it and you expand it

God has created a kingdom and his

management team have misunderstood their

role because they think they own what

he’s only given for us to manage and

whenever ownership and management are in

two different directions there’s gonna

be conflict because when the manager is

doing some opposite to what the owner

has prescribed there’s going to be

conflict because the owner is insisting

you work for me I don’t work for you and

so God created mankind to be his steward

and he would equip them for their

stewardship because he says let us make

man in our own image an image is a

mirror so we’re going to make them like

us so they can mirror us on that which

belongs to us and that is all creation

so you are part of a I’ll put it in

business terms you’re part of us

association of managers for stewards the

Bible calls it stewardship to protect

and expand the assets of another because

God is expecting his people to expand

what he got started in the garden

throughout all of his creation that’s

where God is after we’re told at the end

of chapter 1 every time God created

during the each day of creation he says

it is good it is good it is good he

comes to the end of creation and in

verse 31 he says it is very good he has

created a management team stewards who

he wants them to keep him feeling good

about what he started with there’s

nothing in your life in any part of your

life that you don’t have to go to

something already existing to get it why

because God packed it into creation

that’s why the Lord says in 1st

Corinthians chapter four verse seven

what do you have that you have not

received and then he asked so why are

you bragging as though it came from you

everything you have you have to borrow

from the owner

[Laughter]

I studied the Bible in college for four

years and studied the Bible before you

as different as master’s degree another

force as negative doctor the great and

then I’ve been preaching all of these

years and I’m still learning new things

for me this awesome inexhaustibility

really that’s why I’m so excited about

the twenty Evans Study Bible and its

accompanying works the Tony Evans Bible

commentary it will take all of this

training and this teaching and make it

available to you to understand utilize

and apply God’s most powerful

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God has given you managerial

responsibilities so what does he say in

chapter 2 verse 15 then the Lord God

took the man and put him in the Garden

of Eden to cultivate it and keep it the

Lord God commanded the man saying from

any tree of the garden you may freely

eat but from the tree of the knowledge

of good and evil you shall not eat for

in the day that you eat from it you will

surely die

so he tells Adam look imma give you a

house in my home I’m gonna give you an

apartment in my house and we’re gonna

name your apartment eating this is gonna

be where you live it’s gonna be your

homestead so he gives him a homestead

and he calls the homestead Eden this

homestead was a well a tree property a

bunch of trees on this homestead he

gives him a buddy says now from every

tree of the garden you may freely eat

and I want you to keep it and cultivated

the cultivate means to unlock its

potential when you when a farmer

cultivates the soil he’s doing it the

plant seeds because the seeds are gonna

produce new things in other words I want

you to bring out of it what it can do

therefore let me say this it is a sin

not to maximize your potential it is

wrong not to maximize under God the

potential of what he’s placed in your

sphere of responsibility the first use

of the word free is the Garden of Eden

by God himself because men were created

to be free to maximize their potential

underneath God with all that God has

provided for them to do that with Adam

is a single man he’s not married yet so

I always say to the single if you are

not maximizing your freedom as

a single Christian you’re sinning cuz he

commanded him to do it and he’s not

married so he commands a single man

rather than wine and that there’s no

mate you better use these trees to the

max eat freely from all the trees

maximize your potential of the garden

that I put you in the sphere of my

ownership that I have given you to

manage I want you to get all I want you

to get everything out of creation that

creation has the potential to provide

you keep it

that means protect it cultivate it that

means unleash what it can do why would

God put a tree in the middle of the

garden that could kill you why telling

me I got all these other trees I can

have fun with let me say a word about

the tree it was a Google tree it’s a

Google tree cuz it was the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil so it was an

information center okay you could Google

any data you wanted on the streets cuz

it was an information center he says I

don’t want you to eat of this tree but

why would not I eat up the tree when

it’s got so much information in it good

and evil it’s got good information it’s

got bad information it’s a Google tree

why wouldn’t I take advantage of this

tree because God wanted to tell his

Management Association and all of the

members of it that I do not want your

basis of knowledge to be knowledge that

you reason I want your basis of

knowledge to be knowledge that I reveal

I want you to live by revelation not

human reason the worst thing that the

manager can do is put his rebellious

intellect on God’s property I tell my

father when I was growing up I’d say dad

would tell me to do something and I’d

have a different idea and I’d say I

think

he cut me off right there do you think I

don’t remember paying you to think no

not not when your thoughts are

completing with my thoughts our world is

in chaos today because people are living

their lives based on the Google tree

based on their own ability to reason

based on education information

relationships who they know rather than

the revealed will of God and God is

saying this is not your house then I’m

putting it right smack in the middle of

the garden so that you are reminded

every time you move up and down my

creation it’s not yours

this is mine I’m just letting you here

to manage it for me now when God did

this gave man the ability to unpack and

to flourish his creation giving him all

the natural resources to do it all he

also gave him the power to give it up

cuz you know management man has been

groups can quit on you they can resign

when Jesus was being tempted by the

devil in Luke chapter 4 he was being

tempted by the evil one and Luke chapter

4 verses 6 & 7

the devil comes to Jesus and he says to

them if you will bow and worship me I

will give you all the kingdoms of the

earth and then he says cuz they’re mine

– give way men I thought God owned it

all how could the devil say their mind

the gift because Adam handed the

management back over to the devil see

it’s like this okay let me show hands

how many of you own your homes no you

don’t

no you don’t know over bank-owned your

home in the bank old your home okay

we’ve all been around people who don’t

take care of their houses who don’t take

care of their lawns who don’t take care

of their trash who don’t they they don’t

take care of it and the bank gives you

freedom to mess it up even though it

still claims ownership God has given you

the freedom to mess up what he created

in fact he’s giving you and me so much

freedom we can hand it over to the devil

if we won’t because that’s what Adam did

so as a manager as a steward of God’s

kingdom you are free now to mess up the

garden or to mess up the life to mess up

the family to mess up your world – to

become an addict and just because you

were created by God doesn’t mean you

don’t have the freedom to be a bad

manager because the bank gives you the

freedom to do that and so does God and

so he says I want you to live under me

and I want you to make my creation

fruitful the interesting about fruitful

he said be fruitful and multiply that’s

not just having kids that’s one way your

fruitful and multiply but it means to

unpack potential that did not previously

physically exist okay watch this

Deuteronomy 28 for says being fruitful

includes what you do with the lamb what

you do with the pure produce so he talks

about fruitfulness in in a variety of

different ways so fruitfulness is

everything you unpacked that God is

creating but what’s this the only way a

couple has a kid is that they are

intimate intimacy produces pregnancy

and the intimacy that produces the

pregnancy produces something that didn’t

exist before so a lot of people want

God’s rule who don’t want intimacy with

God’s relationship that’s why he says in

verse 15 the Lord God the word Lord

refers to God’s relational common mental

term for those who’s designated to rule

under him so what God is saying is you

must pursue an intimate relationship in

order to express my rule as my manager

because the intimate relationship will

give you the information for my rule so

that I can produce something that was

not there when you started the potential

was there but your job was to craft it

develop it a lot of us have good motives

but we’re making bad decisions because

it’s not coming from our steward

relationship it’s coming because we

think we have the right to do it even

though the owner has not given us

permission God says I want to unpack

want you to unpack the potential and so

Kingdom stewardship is our earthly

responsibility psalm 115 verses 14 and

16 says the heavens belong to God but

earth belongs to man in other words God

is up there and we’re down here and he’s

expecting us to do down here what comes

from him up there because it’s his

kingdom but he’s put it under man’s

management it’s under management and you

can manage it badly or you can manage it

well we are the caretakers of God’s

property now what’s the benefit what’s

the consequence what comes out of this

if you decide beginning today you don’t

own anything that’s my challenge and I

know that’s gonna get something used to

because we used to saying this is mine

it’s yours to manage

not yours to own okay he told them in

verse 28 and I will bless them and they

will rule of Genesis one blessing is the

experience of God’s favour blessing is

the favor of God entrusted to us for

ourselves and for the benefit of others

now here’s the key ruling was tied to

relationship reflecting God’s image and

this ruling in concert with relationship

for the purpose of managing what God has

placed in you is the key to experiencing

blessing if you are opposed to the owner

what you think you own is in trouble now

you may not see it right now but over

time when Adam and Eve blew it their

whole world fell apart emotionally they

were now scared of everything

their marriage was in trouble he and his

wife were in conflict with one another

it says and she will seek to rule over

you and you will seek to rule over her

so there’ll be a battle of battle in the

house it says that she’s gonna have pain

and childbearing he says you’re gonna

sweat by your brow when you go to work

and so what God is saying is if you want

the full expression of me working in

your life give up ownership give up stop

owning you or anything that is under

your care manage it as according to my

will in my word and our relationship but

don’t claim ownership in fact first

grimsey 619 says don’t even claim

ownership over your own body I mean

that’s how God gets down to that kind of

detail you don’t own you you’ve been

bought with the price he says that’s why

the Bible says lean not to your own

understanding you have been here long

enough don’t know enough

this is mine but God now has to contend

with the generation of Benedict Arnold’s

people who claim God but who work for

the opposing management company who

works for the other team while claiming

a relationship with God and rulership

under God when God says if you will give

up ownership and come under my ownership

and accept your managerial

responsibilities that’s where the

blessing is so the question is how many

owners are in the house

well now nobody’s hand goes up okay

understand but in all seriousness if you

will decide if I will decide if

collectively we decide if your family

decides every sphere if you decide I

give up ownership I give up ownership

because I tried to own it and it’s not

working give up ownership become a

manager instead because our owner

already owns it and he’s not requesting

joint ventures so why fight it it’s not

available but management opportunities

are so the question is will you give up

ownership in terms of God become a

manager and find out what the owner

wants in every sphere of everything

under your sphere of influence give him

permission to use all that he’s given

you to unleash the potential of all you

are all you have and all over with

you’re responsible and then watch what

he does in your life in your world for

your good because you will now be giving

him pleasure see now you’re gonna smile

oh because we all have met people who

don’t know that place we tell them you

don’t know your place God looks at

humanity and said they don’t know their

place that’s what happened at the Tower

of Babel they said we will be like God

we go we don’t we don’t need God we’re

gonna build a tower we gonna get to

heaven ourselves good the Bible says in

Genesis 11 God came down is that they

don’t know their place so we gonna cause

havoc so all this havoc you see

political havoc racial havoc social

habit kneeling had had havoc all this

stuff you see it’s it’s God saying they

don’t know their place but if God can

get a group of people who know their

place who understands you are a manager

not an owner and you give it up you have

positioned yourself for the God of the

Bible to bless you so in the words of

football how bad do you want it

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you

you